Articles in The News by Dr. Rakhshinda Perveen
Explore Dr. Rakhshinda’s thought-provoking columns and articles published in The News — one of Pakistan’s most widely read English-language newspapers.
By Dr. Rakhshinda Perveen
Passing laws is easy, changing lives isn’t…
Can laws improve a woman’s life in Pakistan? It is a question I have carried for years through court corridors, classrooms, police trainings and drawing rooms. The UN puts the global stakes in stark relief: women currently hold only 64 per cent of the legal rights that men hold worldwide, and at the current pace of progress, it will take 286 years to close those gaps. Pakistan is not an outlier in this story.
By Dr. Rakhshinda Perveen
The system works - just not for all women
Once upon a time, I co-founded a non-profit with a man widely seen as sacrosanct. What I underwent there I now understand as a toxic convergence of patriarchy, misogyny and structural inequality. I endured it longer than I should have, believing that proximity to power would eventually lead to justice.
By Dr. Rakhshinda Perveen
THE WEIGHT OF UNSPOKEN CHILDHOODS
Cultural memory carries what policy debates refuse to touch. Growing up, I often heard my Nani hum verses attributed to Hazrat Amir Khusro. At the time, I assumed she was simply singing while doing chores, wedding songs popularised in 1976 by Bilqees Khanum and Ishrat Jehan on Pakistan Television and later revived on Coke Studio, “Apne mahalwa maan guriya khelat thi… saiyaan ke aaye kahaar re” (A girl still playing with her dolls is suddenly lifted into a palanquin and carried to her husband’s home).
By Dr. Rakhshinda Perveen
THE WEIGHT OF UNSPOKEN CHILDHOODS
Cultural memory carries what policy debates refuse to touch. Growing up, I often heard my Nani hum verses attributed to Hazrat Amir Khusro. At the time, I assumed she was simply singing while doing chores, wedding songs popularised in 1976 by Bilqees Khanum and Ishrat Jehan on Pakistan Television and later revived on Coke Studio, “Apne mahalwa maan guriya khelat thi… saiyaan ke aaye kahaar re” (A girl still playing with her dolls is suddenly lifted into a palanquin and carried to her husband’s home).
By Dr. Rakhshinda Perveen
The system works - just not for all women
Once upon a time, I co-founded a non-profit with a man widely seen as sacrosanct. What I underwent there I now understand as a toxic convergence of patriarchy, misogyny and structural inequality. I endured it longer than I should have, believing that proximity to power would eventually lead to justice.
By Dr. Rakhshinda Perveen
BILL FAILS, VOICES RISE
The renewed dialogue in the media following the rejection of a private member’s bill by MNA Dr Sharmila Faruqui, seeking to ban the demand and display of dowry, has paradoxically reopened space for hope among long-time activists like myself.